In the midst of the flurry of Android 5.0 announcements, the developer team behind CyanogenMod has released its 12th “M” snapshot of version 11, which is based on Android 4.4 KitKat. While this release has more emphasis on fine tuning and polishing existing features, users are still recommended to upgrade as soon as possible as it patches up certain security holes that have recently been reported.
For example, the release contains patches for the recent POODLE bug, yet another SSL security hole but this time found only in the old version 3.0 of SSL. Although considerably less severe than the dreaded Heartbleed OpenSSL bug, it’s still a good idea to plug up holes, so be sure to keep your CM installation as updated as possible. CyanogenMod notes that there are also some improvements to the handling of multi-SIM features on certain devices.
Although it doesn’t bear the name of “stable”, these “M” snapshots are practically that, at least in the absence of a formal stable release that may never come. CM11 M12 could actually be start of things settling down on the KitKat front, as developers rev up the engines for CyanogenMod 12.
By now, a lot of users are probably wondering when they will be getting Android Lollipop on their CyanogenMod-powered devices. Naturally, it’s too early to tell at this point. The team faces quites some work ahead, not just in porting CM features over to Android 5.0 but also in revamping their design to match the new Material Design guidelines. So it will be quite some time before CM flips the switch and turns on nightly builds. The good news is that there might be more devices that will be able to make the transition to CM12 than the team initially thought, though nothing is still set in stone.
SOURCE: CyanogenMod
